What would you do in Syria

[Belsnickel]

(04-07-2017, 01:54 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Yes.  I think about that all the time.  That is why i know it will eventually cripple us.

Just look how it effected us financially when we were the leader of the "coalition" that invaded Iraq.

Trying to win the "biggest dick" competition is one of the main reasons the USSR collapsed.  The money we are spending to have the biggest pile of weapons will not improve our country long term.  There are a lot better things we could be doing with that money.

I think that striving for the goal of 0.7% of our national income on foreign aid, ODA specifically, would be a much better investment long term than continually growing the size of our already massive military industrial complex. We are a part of the DAC, and the goal for all of those countries is supposed to be that 0.7% mark. We give more in dollars than other countries, but we're still sitting below the 0.2% mark, which will likely go down in the next couple of budget cycles.

I think that the goodwill generated from foreign aid, if we redirected some of that from defense, would be a huge boost to us as a nation in a number of ways, including financially. But that's just my opinion.

Edit: also, affected, not effected. Affect is the verb, effect is the noun.